Sudan palace-museum recalls restive Darfur’s royal past

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A woman visits the ‘Rain Room’ exhibition by the artists’ collective Random International, bathed in purple light in honor of music icon Prince, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles. — AFP Near White House, Washington punk spirit still resonates

ffice workers in suits and high heels head- rights leader Martin Luther King in 1968 in serve them because they were not old enough to ing home for the weekend cross paths in Memphis, Tennessee, race riots in Washington drink legally. Othe streets of the US capital with a crowd drove many white residents from the city center sporting worn jeans, leather jackets and dyed to the suburbs. Ten years later, “downtown was a Having a blast hair. Just a 10-minute drive from the White House, place where (musicians) could do whatever they Mark Andersen, a co-founder of the group, outside a Unitarian church, sounds of furious gui- wanted and it didn’t cost a lot, a lot of the early helps to organize Damaged City Fest, reaching tar chords and pounding drums escape from a venues where the people played were just in des- out to venues where young fans can attend concert-part of the Damaged City Fest, celebrat- olate parts of town,” said shows. “It keeps hardcore and punk in accessible ing Washington’s lesser-known status as the epi- music professor Benjamin Harbert. places and then also keeps hardcore and punk center of . MacKaye agreed. “The music industry, they headed in a healthy direction,” said Nick Candela, “Hardcore” became popular in the late 1970s didn’t see us. The federal government, the DC a Damaged City Fest co-organizer. Washington’s and early . Known for its raw, frenetic sound and socially conscious lyrics, the genre still inspires fans and musicians today. “We’re in the industry of the government. Everyone works on Capitol Hill (in Congress) around here and this is kind of a breath of fresh air from all of this, all this politics,” said Rael Griffin, a 19-year-old university student and Washington native. “I feel like I’m part of history right now. Some of my favorite bands are and , those are the guys that were like pioneers of DC punk music.”

Precursors of grunge Rich Gutteriez (center) of the band Busted Outlook from California, performs in Washington is not usually considered a rock Damaged City Fest at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington. — AFP photos music destination, overshadowed by New York just a few hours’ drive away. Undaunted, a hand- ful of local teens fascinated by punk started the first hardcore bands. As the genre took off, the musicians didn’t wait for record companies to notice them, organizing their own concerts and self-producing albums-no small feat in the pre- Internet era. That do-it-yourself spirit paved the way for the explosion of grunge. Former Nirvana drummer , who grew up in the Washington suburbs, got his start with local hard- core band Scream. “The reason why I got into Nirvana was because they liked Scream. And so they came to Ian MacKaye, founder of and former member of , an American post- see Scream play and they saw me play and hardcore band that formed in Washington, DC in 1987, poses in his office. they’re like, ‘Man, if we could get a drummer like that, we’d be set,’” Grohl said on the documentary police, they didn’t see us, they had much bigger punk and hardcore fans show a distinct sense of “Salad Days,” about the early punk scene in problems than some kids,” he said. “Our responsibility and political activism, turning away Washington. Ian MacKaye, former singer of Minor friends thought we were ridiculous. We were from the nihilism often associated with the genre. Threat and Washington post-punk band Fugazi, invisible. So we swarmed, it just kept going.” “The DC punk rock scene to me means doing said an early Minor Threat record carried the label Because many of the Washington musicians and whatever you want. I don’t like people telling me “Putting DC on the map.” “It was a joke because fans were young teens, they had to fight to nego- what to do,” said Griffin, the young Washington what map in our world is DC not on?” he asked. tiate all ages concerts. From there, an offshoot fan. “It’s having a good time, but you also got to “But in a way it was also very true. We created called “”-named after a Minor Threat be respectful of people. It’s not about breaking something different.” song and rejecting drugs, alcohol and tobacco- someone’s nose, it’s about having a blast.” — AFP was born. The city’s hardcore punk scene grew Invisible from shows at venues like churches and commu- Rich Gutteriez (white tee) of the band Busted Outlook from California, performs in History played a big role in shaping the city’s nity centers, or bars that marked the fans with a Damaged City Fest. music scene. Following the assassination of civil large X on the hand so bartenders knew not to London’s V&A Museum draws flak over sketching underwear ban

ritics yesterday accused London’s iconic Victoria telling them they can’t read the book.” The show, which opened April 16, explores three & Albert Museum of compromising its role as a Twitter user Phil Dean posted: “As a dedicated centuries of underwear in Europe, focusing on Csource of inspiration for artists after forbidding Sketcher I find this ruling completely unfathomable.” Britain’s relationship with its most intimate garments visitors from sketching exhibits from its new under- The 164-year-old museum stressed on its own Twitter through more than 200 pieces. The ban also applies wear show. The world’s largest museum of decorative account that the ban only applied to some temporary to the “Botticelli Reimagined” exhibition which con- arts and design, which houses over 4.5 million exhibitions, and that “we continue to support and tains around 50 paintings by the Italian Renaissance objects, said it had erected signs forbidding photog- encourage sketching in our seven miles of permanent master, as well as works by the many artists who were raphy and sketching due to “temporary loan restric- galleries”. A spokesman for the gallery had earlier told inspired by him. — AFP tions” imposed by contributors to “Undressed: A Brief the Guardian newspaper that the restrictions-first History of Underwear”. Rachel Campbell-Johnston, introduced for its 2013 David Bowie exhibition-were A gallery assistant poses with a design included in ‘Undressed: A Brief History chief art critic of The Times, said yesterday that the to prevent congestion at busy shows, but later clari- of Underwear’ exhibition which tells the story of underwear design from the ban was “like telling a reader to go to a library but fied that it was also due to loan conditions. 18th century to present day, and runs from 16 April to 12 March 2017.—AFP